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Taxpayer funding of organizations like the Tennessee Municipal League isn’t a problem that’s limited to Tennessee. Conservatives in Texas have been working to outlaw the practice for most of the last decade. One of the leaders of that effort, Peggy Venable, penned an excellent article about the ethics-challenged practice of taxpayer-funded lobbying in an article I want to share here (in a PDF file you can save) from The Insider from the fall of 2005 called “Taxpayer-funded Lobbying: Taxman vs. Taxpayer.” Her arguments are as valid today in Tennessee as they were (and are) in Texas and elsewhere across the country.

What do you think? Should taxpayer funding of lobbying activities be outlawed in the Tennessee legislature? Let us know what you think and share this with others.